We will establish the Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium Coordinating Center (ISCC-CC) at City of Hope. The ISC-CC will be under the direction of Dr. Joyce C. Niland, Chair of Information Sciences. The overall objective of the ISCC-CC is to support the Intestinal Stem Cell Consortium (ISCC) in establishing efficient and effective procedures for the preservation, isolation, and characterization of intestinal stem cells, while developing and validating specific markers for this population of cells. The ISCC-CC will do this by working with investigators from 5-7 different research projects chosen by NIDDK. The ISCC-CC will optimize study administration, coordination, quality control and information management across the ISCC projects. The specific aims are: 1. To provide administrative support and oversight to the ISCC for all Steering and Sub-Committee meetings and teleconference calls; 2. To serve the administrative functions common to all ISCC-CC research projects, coordinating ISCC activities that are best served by centralized ISCC-CC systems and processes; 3. To create and maintain the ISCC information systems and information management processes, using state-of-the-art information technology and robust security/confidentiality; 4. To promote translational research through distribution of ISCC resources, e.g. ISCs, and data exchange of research progress, methods, data, and information between members of the ISCC;and 5. To support the design, analysis and quality assurance of ISCC experiments and data, to optimize the production and sharing of ISCs and develop and validate stem cell markers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Diseases affecting the small intestine represent a diverse collection of conditions that can cause anything from diarrhea to death in affected individuals. In 2004 digestive diseases were responsible for approximately 236,000 deaths in the United States and nearly $142 billion dollars in direct and indirect expenses. Of those reported deaths, 9836 were attributable, in part of whole, to conditions of the small intestine. Understanding the biology of the small intestine will aid in the development of therapies to treat intestinal diseases.